Marilyn MacGruder Barnewall began her career as a journalist with the Wyoming Eagle in Cheyenne. During her 20 year banking career, she wrote extensively for The American Banker, Bank Marketing Magazine, Trust Marketing Magazine, and other major industry publications. The American Bankers Association (ABA) published Barnewall’s Profitable Private Banking: the Complete Blueprint, in 1987. She taught private banking at Colorado University for the ABA and trained private bankers in Singapore.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

POPE FRANCIS I: YOUR EXHORTATION IS MARXIST PART 2

By
Marilyn MacGruder Barnewall
December 8, 2013
NewsWithViews.com

PAPAL
COMMENTARY IS MARXIST

It is
obvious when reading the pre-Thanksgiving comments of Pope Francis I,
that the words of President Ronald W. Reagan stuck in the new Pope’s
mind as he notes the failed “trickle down” theories of the
former President. The Pope attributes “trickle down” to capitalism
and thus because it did not work it must be the fault of capitalism.

The
question, of course, is: Did Reagan’s policies fail? Or did a corrupt
political environment prevent them from being properly implemented?

The
Pope said: “Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories
which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably
succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world.
This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a
crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic
power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.”

So sayeth
Pope Francis I of the Holy Mother Church. No liberal Marxist will disagree
with such a statement… and a few who call themselves conservative
(but are really just liberal Republicans) will agree, too.

Actually,
the assumption that economic growth that is encouraged by a free market
inevitably brings about greater justice and inclusiveness was tested through
American history until the establishment of the Federal Reserve System
in 1913. And this nation thrived under that system! The capitalist free
market system created the most dynamic economy in world history, Pope
Francis. Surely you are not a student of economic history if you are making
such broadly inaccurate statements. The American capitalist economy you
denigrate provided more jobs to Europe’s poor than any phenomenon
in world history.

The
Pope continues: “Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means
to be part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer
society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised –
they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the ‘exploited’
but the outcast, the ‘leftovers’.” He cries out against
“a throw away culture,” and what he termed “an invisible
and almost virtual” economic tyranny.

Francis
disavows income inequality around the world. The United States –
where levels of income inequality are at record levels – make clear
that the wealthy are into recovery mode from the financial crisis of 2007
but the lower and middle classes still struggle. Pope Francis takes the
moral high ground with his concern about the poor and income inequality
around the world. His suggested solutions and his rejection of capitalism
as a solution, however, are in error. One of the problems in the Pope’s
decision that capitalism is the problem and that “trickle down”
doesn’t work is an over-simplified view of wealth versus profit.
Perhaps an article I wrote
on that subject will help in better defining the two.

The
primary issue the Pope avoids when speaking of income and poverty inequality
in America vs the rest of the world is that the poor in America have lifestyles
equivalent to the upper middle classes in his Argentinian home (where
his socialist philosophies dominate) and American poverty is the equivalent
of the middle class lifestyles of Europe. I wrote about this and gave
statistics verifying it in a World
Net Daily article.

Since
the economies of South America (with rare exception) and Europe are socialist
based – where income redistribution is part of daily political life
– and, until recently and at the hands of the Obama Administration,
has been minimized in America – what Pope Francis I is saying doesn’t
make sense.

The
Pope’s logic equates to this:

1.
I want to help the poor. (I have no doubt that is what Pope Francis wants
to do.)2. I think the best way to do that is to redistribute
the wealth from the rich to the poor.3. In all economies where such a philosophy has been
employed, all that has been achieved is to reduce the quality of life
of the middle class causing them to become poor.

The
Pope is largely correct in his statements lamenting poverty, the discomforts
and indignities of it, and the reasons for it. There are few Americans
who would argue that our political system has totally corrupted the economic
system in this country. And yet, the following Papal statement makes one
question how serious Francis is about solving the problem: “I beg
the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the
state of society, the people, the lives of the poor.”

This
request for more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state
of society, of the people, and the lives of the poor is, I am sure, honestly
made. It is certainly indicative that His Holiness strongly believes in
miracles because it would take the hand of God to remove from office all
of those politicians in America (and around the world – including
Argentina) whose hands in the cookie jar have caused and supported the
poverty against which he rails. Politicians who redistribute wealth have
one concern: an increase in their personal net worth. There are a few
exceptions, but they are rare.

The
corruption of politicians worldwide has caused the current economic crisis
and continues to rob from the poor and give to the rich in a Reverse Robin
Hood manner. The politicians of the world consider the poor to be collateral
damage as they pad the monetary gains resulting from legislation that
produces bridges to nowhere in Alaska and money to Senator Diane Feinstein’s
husband for a non-existent high-speed rail project in California.

They
view the rest of us as collateral damage, too. Please, Your Eminence!
Pray for no more politicians who are concerned for the poor! We will all
be starving if your prayers are answered!

“A
new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally
and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules… To all this we
can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which has
taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows
no limits.”

You
are absolutely correct, Pope Francis. It knows no limits. But how can
you in one thought pray the Lord for good politicians concerned with the
poor, and in another thought in the same document reveal your awareness
that the thirst for power and possessions knows no limits? The most powerful
place in the world where the thirst for power and possessions is even
greater than beyond the gates of hell is in the political arena. The second
place would be at multi-national companies – and they are not part
of the capitalist philosophy described by Adam Smith when he defined capitalism
in his book Wealth of Nations. Multi-national companies have loyalty only
to the cheapest world labor pool they can find to produce their products.
They are the ones who want to keep the poor – well, poor, so surely
you cannot speak of them as the saving grace that can give meaning and
purpose to the lives of the poor.

Specifically
what is this newborn tyranny of which you speak? Is it capitalism? I think
not for the obvious reason that capitalism as created by the philosophy
of Adam Smith does not exist in the world today. Thus, today’s economic
problems cannot result from capitalism.

Rather,
greed so great that the political faction of global politicians willing
to sell their national sovereignty to enrich themselves is this “new
tyranny.” And who are the parents of this new tyranny? Its mother
is the laziness of the people whose freedoms are being stolen daily (too
busy to be bothered with learning about the economic system that determines
their well being and doing what is necessary to protect it from corruption
– it’s boring, after all). The father of this tyranny is the
international lack of a moral compass.

Who
or what bears responsibility for the moral health of nations and the people
who populate them? The churches that should be educating the populace
about the importance of freedom and the only economic philosophy that
supports it: Capitalism!

Pope
Francis I says: “Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’
sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today
we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion
and inequality. Such an economy kills.” The Pope went on to ask,
“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless
person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two
points?”

Who
can disagree with that statement? Most Americans would agree with His
Holiness that the mainstream media is nothing more than a group of prostitutes
who sell their access to the public. They print what they are paid to
print and it is very wrong. That is not the fault of capitalism; rather,
we are back to the lack of a moral compass within the media.

However,
since we are speaking of the Ten Commandments, I wish I could ask Pope
Francis about the total violation of one of God’s Commandments by
the Liberation theology he supports. “Thou shalt not covet.”

To covet
is for a person to willingly take from someone that which he or she has
earned for his or her own benefit. The fact that the Pope suggests politicians
via taxation should forcibly remove the funds from one entity to give
to another suggest that “Thou shalt not steal” is also being
violated. The only Commandment on which God placed more emphasis than
any of the other nine was that His people should love Him first and foremost
and without reservation. He did not suggest that killing someone was a
greater sin than coveting the possessions of others or that killing someone
was a greater sin than stealing.

I pray
the Pope will give more serious thought to his opinions on these very
important issues. I pray he will look at the American economy before NAFTA
was forced on the American people and industrial jobs were quickly shipped
to cheap labor pools around the world so multi-national companies could
profit from the work of the poor the Pope says he wants to champion.

Pope
Francis said: “First of all, we need to be sure that we understand
the meaning of the words we read… the most important goal is to
discover its principal message, the message which gives structure and
unity to the text.”

Pray
that the Pope will study the meaning of the word “capitalism”
before demeaning it and assuming what is, in reality, “debtism.”
World economies today represent a system of “debtism,” not
“capitalism.” The system of debtism is that about which Pope
Francis should add his powerful voice to eliminate it from the world.
Too, it would set a good example if the Church released some of its wealth
to help fight the problem of poverty. To suggest others give up what they
have worked hard to earn but continue to sit on the wealth of the Church
smacks a bit of hypocrisy. As I recall, the only thing that angered Jesus
Christ was the hypocrisy of the money changers on the steps of the Temple.

Hopefully,
the Pope will become more familiar with the meaning of capitalism before
declaring it responsible for world tyranny. It is the prostitution of
capitalism and the corruption of those who have prostituted it that are
responsible for unending poverty, not capitalism.

Another
of the Ten Commandments tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves. We
are told to love God above all else. What is love?

About Me

Marilyn MacGruder Barnewall began her career in 1956 as a journalist with the Wyoming Eagle in Cheyenne. During her 20 years (plus) as a banker and bank consultant, she wrote extensively for The American Banker, Bank Marketing Magazine, Trust Marketing Magazine, was U.S. Consulting Editor for Private Banker International (London/Dublin), and other major banking industry publications. Barnewall taught private banking at Colorado University and has authored seven banking books, one dog book, and two works of fiction and one biography.
Barnewall is the former editor of The National Peace Officer Magazine and has written editorials for the Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News and Newsweek, etc. She has written for News With Views, World Net Daily, Canada Free Press, Christian Business Daily, Business Reform, and others. She has been quoted in Time, Forbes, Wall Street Journal and other national and international publications. She can be found in Who's Who in America (2005-10), Who's Who of American Women (2006-10), Who's Who in Finance and Business (2006-10), and Who's Who in the World (2008).